Alwyn woke up to a low sizzling sound.
"What…"
Half asleep, with his head still spinning and the eyes too hazy to distinguish shapes, he searched for her partner inside the dimly lit cabin.
'Huh?'
Eline was nowhere to be seen, her bed was empty.
With a sudden surge of energy, Alwyn got on his feet, which hadn't completely finished healing yet, and sprinted out of the carriage, slamming the door with all his strength… which was not much, because of his weak constitution and the fact that he was still recovering.
Thump.
The wooden door was thick, and his arm hurt badly from the impact.
"Eline!"
He desperately screamed as the eerie view of the dark forest opened wide before him.
The sound of fire had increased greatly, its source was extremely close. So he turned to his right, in the direction where it was coming from and-
"...Need something?"
The female Reaper was found sitting on a stone, right next to him, a sizzling pan in her hand left. She was cooking breakfast.
Alwyn stared at her with dead fish eyes, too speechless to react.
"Are you feeling well? Hmm, maybe the siren has messed with your head. You should rest some more."
Blood started seeping through the bandages wrapped around his feet, and the girl noticed it with a subtle glance.
"Yes, go back inside. I'm almost finished here."
Still a bit disoriented, Alwyn's body slowly eased up.
"T-Thank you... I'll go change the bandages."
With a deep sigh of relief, he entered the cabin and sat on his bed, ready to inspect his wounds.
'...Wait.'
Only then did he realize that the rope that should have restricted his movements had been severed clean. Eline had already freed him from his shackles.
Had she done it after waking up in the morning, deeming that since the night was over, he would not turn into the siren's puppet anymore, or…
A sinister thought forcefully crept into his mind. The seed of doubt was planted.
'Did she do it to turn me into the siren's puppet, to follow me to its nest?!'
It was not the first time that she had tried something similar, making it even more suspicious. His concerns grew stronger with every second that he spent reflecting on the matter.
"Liar…"
He whispered.
Sirens ate their prey after gaining full control over their mind and bringing them to the nest to breed, meaning that Eline had tried to kill him, even if in an indirect way.
She had broken the promise.
She had betrayed him, just like many others did in his past lives.
Deeming he was in danger, his mind quickly assumed a state of alert.
Alwyn rose to his feet and frantically searched for a weapon inside the shelves and cupboards on the front wall. A lot of items fell on the floor, the sound they made was very loud, but he could only ignore them.
He was running out of time.
'Shit!'
Bang.
Without a warning, the door shut open and the faceless girl entered the cabin in a hurry.
The interior was literally a mess.
Alwyn froze in place and turned his head towards her with one swift motion. He was not yet ready for a direct confrontation, so he started improvising.
"I-I was just… searching for… b-bandages! I… couldn't find them where I took them yesterday…"
It was clear that he was making shit up.
The girl remained silent for a couple seconds, then replied with a voice so unperturbed that it gave off an uneasy feeling.
"Ah, right. I had forgotten to replenish the shelf after tending to your wounds."
Alwyn stared at her, too confused to speak. Why was she trying to cover for him? Was this another mind game of hers?
Seeing him frozen and disoriented, she better explained herself.
"I realized too late that your wounds had opened up again after our little… midnight dispute. So I cleaned them up after you fell asleep, and changed the bandages."
'Wait.'
Alwyn looked at his arms, wrapped in clean white cloth, and noticed familiar knots here and there, the same type of knot that she had used when tying him up with the rope.
'Fuck.'
"If that made you uncomfortable, I apologize."
"N-No, that's not a problem. T-Thank you…"
"Why the mess though? You could have just asked where I kept them."
Eline had completely lowered her guard around Alwyn, while he was still so distrusting of her.
'I'm a fucking idiot.'
How could two individuals become partners when one could not trust the other?
Something needed to change, but it was hard for Alwyn to willingly do so. After all, he didn't know Eline that well. He actually didn't know her at all.
How could he so easily entrust his life to someone he had only seen for a week, someone he had never even spoken to?
"Anyway, let's eat now. The food is getting cold."
"…Sure."
Absentmindedly said Alwyn, completely lost in his conflicting thoughts.
Eline grabbed a nearby barrel, lifted it with unnatural ease and positioned it between the two beds attached to the wall.
When the barrel hit the floor, countless clanging noises reverberated inside the room, like a reminder of the superhuman strength of the tall girl. The barrel was actually full of heavy metallic objects.
Even if Alwyn unconsciously viewed her as an enemy, he didn't have the means to fight her. He would get demolished, if he remained human, that is.
But the probabilities of becoming a Reaper were really slim now, close to zero actually, as most of the shards had already been found by the Church.
There was no way for him to have a chance against Eline. Willing or not, he had to abandon the idea of opposing resistance.
He didn't really have a choice, he had to put his trust in her.
"Here."
Eline handed him a tin plate with a fork and put the pan on the barrel.
"Take all you want, there's plenty for both."